INSIDER

The Real Reason Your Tinder Dates Always Go Nowhere

Tinder has become so embedded in the fabric of modern dating, that researchers have started studying the way we use it to gain insight into how men and women interact in the digital age.

One such study aimed to learn the different ways that men and women use Tinder, which as it turns out, couldn’t be more different. Led by Dr Gareth Tyson from Queen Mary University London, researchers created 14 fake male and female Tinder profiles in New York and London. After liking thousands of real profiles, they found that men are a lot less discerning than women when it comes to liking a profile. The fake female profiles matched with a whopping 8248 males, while the fake male profiles only matched with 532 women.

What researchers found peculiar however, was that of all the matches with men, only 7% sent a message to engage in conversation, while 21% of women who matched attempted to pursue a conversation. So while men are a lot less discerning when it comes to swiping right, they’re also a lot less likely to follow that up with an actual conversation.

Does that mean men are using Tinder like a game instead of a way to make meaningful connections? The study’s authors seem to think so. “If somebody does not feel particularly invested in a given match, they may feel casual about following up on it later on,” Tyson told The Daily Mail. “An alternative theory is that many people post-filter their matches. Instead of clicking like for people they really find attractive, they click like for lots of people and then decide after the match has occurred whether or not they want to follow it up with a conversation.”

In other words, most men use Tinder as a fleeting pasttime rather than a legitimate way to meet someone. We swipe left on that.

Find the humour in Tinder with a copy of Tinder Nightmares, and tell us if you still rely on the dating app to find love.